Story: Linking Worlds
A story, featuring the Bishaurt. By Eo and Holben (as always). Chapter 1: Changing a World Neel Jatalwo, Bishaurt politician, picked up some food and a drink from the refrigerator. He felt miserable. After his most recent attempt to stop the fighting between his race and... Pretty much everyone, to be honest. The technology to open portals to other universes had been discovered, and he had called to put down the weapons and start trying to live in harmony. One day, they'd discover someone more powerful than them. And that would be when the Bishaurt would fall. Many had listened, but those in charge had not. He went to lay down on the bed, and picked up the remote control for the Dritalevi (which would be instantly recognisable as a television). And, like he usually did when he'd been 'sent home to rest' (Kicked out and ignored, he thought), he started watching television. Krag. Politics were on. Well, might as well watch. Neel picked up his drink, and let it run into his throat. -"and, after a long period of time spent supporting his cause, the order has been passed. The Bishaurt shall be led into a new era of peace." There was a sudden spray of the Bishaurt's drink all over the Dritalevi. And a sudden surge of excitement. He... He'd been listened to! They had actually planned for him to be sitting here, right now, and to see this! "He has been chosen as the diplomat for the first major mission into a new universe." And he charged out of the door. Chapter 2: Arrangements A few weeks later, Neel gawped at the massive ship that had been fitted out with the necessary technology. It was the largest he'd ever seen! "And this, Neel, is the largest Bishaurt ship ever seen." "Captain Obvious, anyone?" he replied to the pilot. Neel had been flying to the ship, when a second Bishaurt had joined him, asking if he was heading to the Spatial Overlord as well. When he had said yes, he had introduced himself as Aken Baitan, pilot of the Overlord. Well, direction guy, anyway. He'd be sitting near the comm links, saying where they needed to go, and all that. Neel had replied in turn, and they'd been getting along well since then. They landed on the boarding platform, gave their identities, and were allowed access in. ---- The two Bishaurt looked around at the complex mechanisms. The smaller one, Aken, went over to the front limb-rest (Bishaurt equivalent of a chair) and sat down on it. The other sat down on the floor, which had comfortable enough carpet. And then they waited for everyone else to do everything else. ---- "All Bishaurts, supplies and equipment are on board the Spatial Overlord," said a voice from the loudspeakers. "Preparing to depart from Undrishuar." And Neel, Aken, and everyone else on the ship felt a sudden thrill, and the engines started. ---- "The Overlord is in orbit. Preparing excursion into the new universe." And a large button, engraved with the finest gold, and painted red for victory, was pressed. The Dimensional Rift opened, and the Spatial Overlord entered Emenata for the first time. Chapter 3: Making an Entrance All eyes in the cockpit were facing the screen. It was the first view of Emenata ever seen by Bishaurt eyes. They had apparently appeared between two star systems. And there was a virtual torrent of ship activity around them. "I think we've stumbled across some sort of hub world," Aken said. "Captain Obvious." "That's me!" he replied with a grin on his face. Someone behind them coughed. "Oh, yes," the pilot said. "Head towards the hub world, and Undrishuar shall make contact with this universe!" They had barely moved forwards when they were hailed. "Or this universe shall make contact with us..." ---- The CDF doesn't like to be caught off-guard. This is the main reason why, all around the star system in which Centro is located, a network of thousands of sensor platforms face outwards into space. Some carry telescopes- optical, infrared, ultraviolet. Some carry RADAR, or LIDAR, or other such mechanisms. As a whole, they provide accurate and detailed information about all objects within a few light-minutes of Centro. Of course, objects moving at FTL can only be detected once they have passed, but such is the range of the array that even at several thousand times light speed, the incoming ships will be detected before their arrival. This was the system which had noted, catalogued, and then transmitted the existence of a worryingly large ship to the headquarters on Centro via FTL communications buoys. In the analysis centre, a number of technicians stood up worriedly as an alarm blared and the room's lights turned red. "Alert. Alert. Unidentified object approaching. Alert." From the office at the head of the room came an irritated Salsene. He turned to snap at the staff. "Get me the analysis! Prepare the defense ships and planetary defense measures! And get me the chief!" There were nods of acknowledgement as his followers headed off to do their jobs. A holo-image appeared of the vessel- it was enormous, bigger than any Viperian vessel. Its armament was obviously advanced, too, and Reconaissance Master Garan doubted the CDF would be able to do much to stop it, if it was hostile. "Now, hail that ship." From Centro, a tightbeam transmission was sent to a satellite in orbit. This satellite then beamed its signal into an FTL buoy, and in milliseconds it was at the transmission nodes and being directed at the Bishuart ship. "Greetings, unidentified vessel. This is Centro Spatial Defense Headquarters. Please state your identity and purpose. ---- "Well, I guess it's your time to start talking." Neel pressed the button, to respond to the hailing. He cleared his throat, and began his speech. Bishaurt standard fare, modified to be peaceful. "Greetings, sapient species of this universe! We are the mighty Bishaurt! We hail from the planet of Klretukpokain, in the Auron galaxy of Undrishuar. This ship is the Spatial Overlord, come to speak of peace with you." "Neel?" someone whispered. "You forgot about asking who they are." "They wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said anything," the diplomat whispered in reply. "It's not usually part of the Bishaurt contact speech anyway." He reverted to 'Hello, we're the Bishaurt' voice and continued, "What is your species, and its status within the galaxy?" ---- "We do not know of Undrishuar. It is... another universe?" Garan sounded uncertain. "You're interuniversal?" Behind him, a hushed silence had descended. An interuniversal species... this would be a historic moment. ---- "Unless we are mistaken and the Spatial Rift simply leads to somewhere else in our universe, Undrishuar is in a different universe to wherever this is," Neel replied. "This is our first cross into this universe, though. We started the Age of Peace for this moment." "Yeah, a month or so ago," someone whispered. "Shut up, I'm making first interuniversal contact here," Neel whispered. Chapter 4: Getting to know the Locals "It is... very good to meet you. I am a Salsene, but Centro is occupied by dozens of different races, all working together under the Centronian government. Many have their own governments on their homeworlds, though. I guess that Centro is the hub of activities in this galaxy, and the centre of galactic politics. They say that all roads lead to Centro." ---- "It is good to meet you as well," the diplomat said. "Which species live on Centro? Our home galaxy has a relatively low number of sapients, partly because of the early actions of our own species." "Which we have completely left behind," he added as an afterthought. ---- "Off the top of my head... Salsenes, Zyrothans, Deraia, Atrenids, Iridi, Alxen, Phoebus, Detroni, Vrah, Lutrians, Skarg, Xodu, Gaedrongo, Velaya, Arbotiles, Banshaen, Lentaa, Urahob, Irkaputh and a few Kree and Aians." ---- Neel nodded. "I shall start a video link," he said. "So that our species may actually know what the other looks like." He pressed a button, and a camera came out from the lower part of the screen. "What's your galaxy and universe called?" Aken asked. "Okay, that's a reasonable interruption," Neel said. He glared at the whisperer, before turning his head back to the screen before the video came on. ---- In the Centro HQ, a number of computers began to make loud noises as they processed the video data from the Bishaurt, trying to turn it into a visual format. After a few seconds, they had decoded it and displayed the link upon the vidscreen at the centre of the room. They quietened down. Garan looked at these strange beings, and tried not to seem overly interested. "This is the Viperius Galaxy, in the Ementata universe." ---- "Are there any species that we need to be wary of?" asked Neel. "The only reason we started being peaceful a few weeks ago was so we didn't get slaughetered." "WILL YOU SHUT UP!?" Aken shouted at the interrupting Bishaurt. "Thanks Aken," Neel said. "No prob," the pilot replied. Neel continued. "Despite our advancement, we are still not above the other races of our galaxy, nevermind those of this universe and others." ---- "Watch out for the Flesh Thieves, Elisri, and Craan, within our galaxy. If you go outside... well." ---- "So basically, this universe has large numbers of galaxy-razing empires," Neel summed up. "It sounds... More painful than we anticipated." ---- "Oh, there are nice... -r... ones too. But we've only seen a tiny portion of Emenata- we have no idea what it's like beyond the nearest galaxies." ---- "Our species is in a similar situation," Neel replied. "Our species has only explored two galaxies fully, with two other galaxies in the middle of explorations." "Base on Klretukpokain requests the return of the Spatial Overlord," said a voice from the loudspeakers. "We must return from our mission now," Atek said. "We hope to have peaceful relations in the future." And with that, the Bishaurts reversed back home into Undrishuar. Chapter 5: A Chapter For Centro To Reflect on the Bishaurts "They could be useful allies." "Agreed. When they come back, make sure there's a fanfare." Category:Serial Fiction Category:Fiction